MTV's 'Scream' Renewed for Second Season

Courtesy of MTV

The freshman drama gets an early pickup after airing only five episodes.

MTV's Scream will kill again.

Ahead of its time at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour, the Viacom-owned cable network announced that the series based on the feature film franchise of the same name would be back for a second season.

The series, which has aired only five of its 10 episodes, launched June 30 to 1.03 million total viewers. Factoring in three days of delayed viewing and streams of the pilot, that number grew to 6 million, according to the network. The premiere of the series, produced by The Weinstein Co., ranks as the No. 1 cable telecast in its time period among viewers 12-34 and 18-34.

Scream, which stars Bex Taylor-Klaus, John Karna, Willa Fitzgerald, Tracy Middendorf and Jason Wiles, focuses on the search for a murderer who killed the town's popular girl, Nina (Bella Thorne) and explores whether the previous generation's killer — Brandon James — has returned.

While the killer will be revealed in the season finale, producers said they hope to follow a more traditional format — though they have discussed doing an anthology more along the lines of American Horror Story.

"You want to follow the characters after they go through their first experiences," exec producer Jaime Pagliasaid at Comic-Con. Executive producer Jill E. Blotevogel noted that they would like to keep as much of the core cast on board as they can (read: alive) going forward. As far as the end of the season, Paglia said, "there will be satisfying answers" for season one "and bigger questions and mysteries that will be explored in season two," as he hopes his show avoids making mistakes like The Killing did in its first season.

The decision to renew Scream comes as MTV is undergoing an executive shuffle after president of programming Susanne Danielsdeparted for a gig at YouTube. Scream joins a roster of original dramas that also includes the recently renewed Teen Wolf and Finding Carter with Shannara due in October. The network currently does not have any drama pilots in the works.
MTV